STEVE SMITH -- What’s up

Women don’t stop when they have the flu. If they’re moms at home, they

still do the kid stuff, as well as make dinner and maintain the house.

And if they’re single or kidless, they’re on the job and you have to push

them out the office door to get them home to some bed rest.

But when most guys get the flu, they’re ready to make out their last

will and testament. Plus, they insist on being waited on hand and foot.

Ask any woman who has had to nurse a man back to health from the flu and,

if she’s honest, she’ll tell you men are babies.

Ask any doctor or dentist and, if he or she is honest, you’ll hear

that most men don’t go to see them unless their tooth hurts or they have

one foot in the grave.

Last Saturday night, I floated that hypothesis to Gordon Eckerling. As

a gastroenterologist, Eckerling is on the front line of one of the most

upsetting aspects of human health: He’s a go-to guy for conditions of the

colon and rectum.

Not exactly pleasant dinner conversation, but that’s what we discussed

last Saturday night at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach, where the

Colorectal Cancer Network was holding its first dinner and dance.

“True or false,” I said to Eckerling. “Men don’t go to the doctor

unless they’re half-dead.” Understanding the liberty I took with my

speech, Eckerling replied, “True.” Then he added: “But we also get a lot

of men in to be tested because their wives have convinced them to come.”

That second group includes yours truly. Of the times I have been to

the doctor in the 16 years I have known Cay, I’d guess that nearly all

were because she prodded me to go. And each time, I was better off after

the treatment.

Since Sept. 11, we have been told that our lives will never be the

same, but most people forget that the changes are not all doom and gloom.

Most of us have an opportunity to make the positive changes we’ve been

putting off, if only because we now realize that life is a lot more

fragile than we realized.

One of those changes should be that men stop treating their bodies as

though they run on batteries and start getting serious about preventing

disease. Men need to start treating diseases such as colorectal cancer

with the same serious attitude displayed by women about breast cancer.

After all, more people will contract colon cancer than women will get

breast cancer. And that’s a shame when you consider that colon cancer is

one of the most preventable cancers known.

If common sense won’t sway you, here are facts:

* Colon cancer is the second leading cancer killer. Lung cancer is

first.

* This year, about 56,300 men and women will die from colon cancer.

* More than 60% of the Americans who should be tested are not tested.

Cay and I were invited to the dinner by Carl Merkle, whom I met at the

Saturday coffee sponsored by Assemblyman John Campbell several weeks ago.

Merkle impressed me with his sincerity and his genuine, selfless desire

to put the brakes on colorectal cancer.

A few days ago, I asked him why he cared. “My wife has a condition

known as ulcerative colitis that makes her high at risk for colon

cancer,” he answered. She gets a colonoscopy annually, so she has become

a bit of an expert in colonoscopy.”

Merkle got heavily involved in the Colorectal Cancer Network, a

nonprofit organization established to increase awareness. Merkle’s goal

for the group is “to get a strong awareness program started here in

Orange County that can be replicated nationwide. If it gets going well,

and generates sufficientfunds to operate on its own, then the need for my

skills as a facilitator of change will diminish.”

Men and women older than 50 or older than 40 with a history of

colorectal cancer should see a gastroenterologist such as Eckerling now.

Even, ladies, if you have to drag him there. And if the thought of a

colonoscopy is disturbing, consider the alternative.

For more information, contact the Colorectal Cancer Network at (949)

559-1142, Ext. 2, or visit the Web site: o7

https://www.colorectal-cancer.netf7 . Eckerling can be reached at (949)

727-1232.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.